Seeing as Porsche 911 design has been essentially the same for decades, the German automaker is certainly stubborn about some things.
It seems that powertrains, however, is something Porsche can actually be flexible with.
Speaking with during the North American debut of the new 2018 Porsche 911 GT3 at the New York Auto Show, Andreas Preuninger, head of the Porsche GT department, said that as long as the German brand is better than its competitors, it doesn’t matter what’s powering its cars.
“Regarding technology that is coming up, we’ll see. As long as our cars are more exciting, more light, more nimble, and more agile than the competition, I don’t care if they’re propelled by combustion engines or whatever else,” he said. “So we have to go with the flow. I’m sure we won’t be the first with an all-electric car in the GT world.”
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Because Porsche’s motorsports program has a direct influence on Porsche’s road-going production cars, whatever powertrain gets the most success in the races will most likely find its way into street cars, meaning a hybrid or even all-electric is not out of the picture for the next GT3 or GT2 model. Porsche is already working on an all-electric Tesla competitor with its Mission E, which might give some insight into how the automaker will have an alternative powertrain that doesn’t sacrifice performance.
The new 2018 Porsche GT3 is powered by a high-revving 4.0-liter flat-six, one of the few naturally aspirated engines left in this segment. The engine can be paired with a seven-speed PDK automatic or a six-speed manual, which Porsche is offering again after a one-generation hiatus.
